Veteran Coronation Street star Betty Driver has revealed that, despite following in singer and actress Gracie Fields' footsteps in her early career, she actually HATED her.
And the 90-year-old, believes that fellow Northerner Gracie was "jealous" of her fame at such a young age.
Decades before serving up her famous hotpot in the Rovers Return, Betty starred in West End theatre, a career she says she was forced into by her "domineering" mother.
Revealing the "awful" childhood she suffered at the hands of her "matriarch" on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, Betty said: "My mother wanted me to sound like Gracie Fields.
"I hated Gracie Fields, so constantly it was a battle."
In 1934, the then-14-year-old Betty landed the lead role in a revival of 'Mr Tower of London', made famous by Gracie 19 years earlier.
Betty, whose career has spanned more than 80 years, shared an agent with Ms Fields and recalled the frosty occasion when the pair met.
She said: "One day I went to my agent's house and a man and a woman stood there.
"This woman in a plastic leopard skin raincoat and a headscarf on with dark glasses and big flat brown shoes on and I thought she'd probably come to do a bit of cleaning.
"My agent came down the stairs and said 'You've met Grace haven't you?'
"I said, 'Oh it's a great pleasure' and Gracie Fields looked me bottom to top and said 'Likewise, I'm sure.'
"That's the only thing she ever said to me.
"She was very jealous of me because when I went into the show that she had made famous, I was 14 and the leading lady."
The soap stalwart, who became a household name playing barmaid Betty Williams, opened up to Radio 4's Kirsty Young about the loveless, unhappy life she and her sister, Freda, endured as children.
Betty said: "We had no happiness when we were little.
"We went to a different school each week which was horrendous so you never really caught up on any education.
"It was awful. We had a mother that was a matriarch and she just wanted me to be in the theatre, irrespective of whether I wanted to or not.
"I think she always wanted to be on the stage and she never achieved anything so that was the nearest thing - bunging me on as a little girl."
Part of her mother's wish was that she imitated performer Fields by singing her songs such as 'Sing As We Go' and 'The Biggest Aspidistra In the World'.
Betty added: "She wanted me to be like Gracie Fields and I did not want to be like Gracie Fields.
"I would not sing like her."
During the interview Betty also reflected on her time spent on Coronation Street, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.
Betty added: "I thought we'll probably do about six episodes and I'll be back.
"Forty-one years later and I'm still churching out hotpot! It's amazing."
And, despite celebrating her nintieth birthday last May, the talented actress has no plans to retire.
She said: "I just love working and I will never retire ever.
"They'll have to shoot me to get rid of me!"
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